One of the chief complaints I receive from the attorneys that I meet and work with is that they just don’t have time for legal marketing. While billable hours, day-to-day emergencies and time outside the office all add up, there are definite ways to go about making time for legal marketing and business development. The key is to think of it as an ongoing habit, not something to “make time for.” Rather than seeing marketing and business development as a burden, think of it as an integral part of your day-to-day life. The interesting thing about creating this kind of habit is that once you find the right system for your individual lifestyle it should simply become second nature.

The benefits to making time are numerous. Aside from building relationships with potential clients and referral sources, taking advantage of marketing and business development opportunities can help increase your visibility AND credibility in the legal arena and beyond. Writing articles and participating in social media help you create and build a personal brand-something that every lawyer should have. True dedication and time commitment can even bring you recognition as an expert in your chosen practice area or within a specific industry.

Below are a few suggestions and lessons from attorneys I’ve worked with, as well as my own observations and experience. Choose the path that make sense for you or adapt the suggestions to work within your own day, but give it a chance. Do something! The rewards you will reap are far greater than a 5-minute time commitment.

Multi-task. No one I know comes into the office and immediately gets to work. One solution to the time crunch is to fold your marketing and business development efforts into your morning routine. As you sit down to your desk with your morning coffee or tea (or breakfast…) browse through your contacts or referral lists and send a few emails; read a legal marketing blog; update your social media or even spend 10 minutes working on a potential article or speech. By 9 am you’ll have accomplished something solid and can focus the rest of your day on other endeavors. Alternately, you can do the same thing during a quick lunch at your desk or coffee break. You’d be surprised how far 10 minutes can go.

Save it up. One attorney I know has created a special folder in her email Inbox specifically for legal marketing emails. As the weekly or daily updates from the blogs and social media groups she subscribes to come in she simply directs them to the folder. Then, once a week she takes an hour out of her day to read through the week’s emails and respond to them accordingly. She’s able to keep up to date on legal marketing news and colleague updates, post articles and communicate about possible speaking engagements without disrupting the flow of her day.

End your day. A colleague of mine channels his efforts into work all day but integrates marketing into his nighttime routine. With the stresses of the day (and impending deadlines, phone calls and emails) over, he sets aside 15-20 minutes a night before bed to investigate marketing leads, send emails to potential referral sources and work on articles and social media.

Schedule it in… for the first month. If all else fails, treat legal marketing as a literal client. Put it on your schedule and make no excuses for not paying attention to it, just as you would a client. Whether it’s once a week or biweekly, set aside specific time for uninterrupted focus. After the first month I can guarantee that finding time for business development will feel effortless.

Simple in theory but never easy in practice, without a true commitment you can never reap the rewards of a solid marketing habit. Filling your pipeline with work, receiving recognition as an expert and gaining credibility and visibility won’t happen all at once, but you can be sure they will happen. Just as with any other endeavor, it takes focus and time to see results.

One of the most critical elements of successful business development and marketing campaigns is the concept of using several vehicles to reach your potential customer. I call this Multi-Faceted Marketing. It’s based on two very simple assumptions:

1. Most people are resistant to a sales pitch, their first reaction is ‘No’.

2. Most people do not remember something until they have seen or heard it many (6-12) times. That includes your company or product name.

Your customers are overwhelmed with marketing slogans, pitches, and images. They are brain-dead when it comes to being sold. They are most likely resentful of anything that takes their time away from running their small business or mid-sized company, and would sooner ignore you than listen to you. We humans are built in a way that allows us to forget something seconds after seeing or hearing it. It may take 6 to 12 impressions in order for us to recognize something, and often more to remember it.

Question: Would you recognize the logo of the world’s most popular cola? My guess is you would if I could show it to you (it is a registered trademark). It’s probably the most recognized symbol in the world and has been around for over 100 years. But, it’s no accident that you see it everywhere you look. Their parent company knows that even though they are not a new business, and even with their preeminent position in their market, they need to advertise everywhere to support their place in your memory.

Your strategic planning and marketing plan won’t look like theirs, they spend millions on their business development and marketing, but it can contain the fundamental principles that make them successful. It can contain Multi-Faceted Marketing, which will insure your company or product name reaches your potential customer in multiple ways. By doing so, you will insure that they receive multiple impressions and will soon remember you and your products.

What does this look like? It takes some analysis like that done in an intensive Two-Day Critical Analysis and Strategic Planning Consultation, and some understanding of your company, products, and market to show the business development and marketing activities that best fit your company, but a good diversification might resemble:

This is a sample list and not all the activities listed apply to all companies, but you get the idea. A Multi-Faceted, diverse group of activities maximizes the opportunity for you to reach your potential customer multiple times, overcoming the first ‘No’ reaction. It provides the customer multiple impressions allowing them to build a memory of your company and product. And, it allows the time to build a relationship with them, before you ever meet them.

Developing new business isn’t easy, but by following a few basic principles, you can maximize your return on investment on every one of your business development and marketing activities. Beginning with Multi-Faceted Marketing is a good start.

There are many business organizations dealing in today’s world, and none of them are working to run losses. How is it that they survive in this cut throat market and ongoing competition? The answer to this is simple; business development programs are the ones that put any particular organization on top of the business charts.

Any and every business organization has to cope with the market that is never stable and undergoes many changes, so the basic and the most important idea is to stay up to date with market conditions. Meaning that you don’t give your consumer a chance of going to your counterpart as this might result in losing out on precious and potential consumers. So in this long process of business development you are said to communicate, administer and plan so as to have a superior business development for your firm.

A very striking and successful business management plan requires a well-planned approach towards your goal, but there may be an obstacle in your path, your stress level. Working on this elevated competitive level, an approach that is well planned will have beneficial results. The people that are working in the line of business development programs are normally people appointed professionals, managers and employees that work for company’s goals. They strive towards excellence and taking it to new heights by getting high profits for the company in this highly competitive market. However the people working in this field are often stressed and this would be a great barrier in their pathway of being highly productive. The extent of pressure and tension that this people carry is tremendous and for this they require regular stress management programs that consists of hypnosis, relaxation etc.

In a business world, stress is a must where it reflects your approach towards your goals and the amount of pressure you have taken in order to reach new heights. But too much stress will give you nothing but a reduced output.

For a stressed mind nothing is of great value t as compared to peace of mind that had been lost in the process of working till the limit. There’s only that much that anyone can push themselves till. Hypnosis can help you reduce stress levels and regain your past composure, zeal, enthusiasm and foresightedness. Alongside it will enable you to recognise new opportunities. Hypnosis is an age-old art that can help relieve of reliving a stressed mind and mould it back to perfection. It will make you creative and productive as compared to your stress prone days. Soft music hypnotizes your mind and allows it to calm down.

There is no need for you to go looking out for hypnosis treatment, as it is made available for you in the form of mp3 on the Internet where you can download the contents and use it to the fullest extent for your cause. Once you use this mp3 download content you will realize that you are as efficient as before. This way you will be able to make effective business development strategies that will have highly satisfying results.

Business development should always be a priority, but it’s especially important for organizations that don’t have a sales force. In my opinion, everybody within an organization is in sales, because every touch-point with the outside world is an impression that you leave and an opportunity to sell. Too many times I have encountered a culture where business development was viewed as something that someone had to do (begrudgingly) and nobody took ownership. Somebody within your organization has to own sales and business development. This person needs to understand the process, or be able to hire somebody who does. Talking to somebody at an airport bar while waiting for a flight is one way to plug your business, but how many times can you do that? We need to think of business development as something that is replicable and that could be continued even if people leave the organization.

Set Up Systems

My opinion is that, if you get hit by a bus tomorrow and nobody can continue your job, because there is no system in place, you don’t really have a business. Warren Buffet once said “you need to set up a system for your organization that an idiot can run, because at one day that will happen” (check out the quote!).

Systems are used for engineering, IT, production, or accounting. Nobody would expect a company to not have an accounting system but it’s highly common for companies to live without any system when it comes to sales. That is when I developed the blueprint of “Selling & Dating” and how the two compare. It’s a humorous way of looking at the process, but if one follows the steps sales becomes more transparent.

Selling is a Process

That’s probably why most people are afraid of sales, because there is no guidelines, no blueprint. Hiring somebody who is charismatic is very often an option that is chosen. But charisma only takes you so far. Sales really is a process and once everyone in the organization understands that, it will be a lot easier to follow. There is this fear of selling, almost a disdain where sales is viewed as a practice where we have to persuade another person to buy something that they really need or like. Once we shift that mindset and understand that as long as we meet a need that another person has, it’s so much easier to embrace selling.

In my opinion, the fear and reluctance to selling stems from the fact that we are not taught to do it in a process oriented way. “Just pick up the phone and pitch our business”, seems to be the advice that many people are given, especially in smaller organizations. Once you have developed an ideal prospect profile and you know that what you are offering is something that your target will need, you can be structured in your approach and have a conversation rather than a sales chat.

Trust me, it works every single time.

Never forget those 3!

When developing the benefits to your audiences, always remember to develop messaging that helps them get their attention. If you have read my blog you will remember that people buy because you can help them: